According to this news report (in Spanish), Madrid's main international airport is to be renamed in honor of former Spanish prime minister Adolfo Suárez, who died yesterday at 81. The official name of the airport will now be "aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez, Madrid-Barajas."

Suárez was Spain's first democratically-elected prime minister after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. Along with King Juan Carlos, he was a principal architect of Spain's transition from dictatorship to constitutional democracy.

That transition was an impressive achievement. In retrospect it may appear almost inevitable, but I don't think it was at the time. A lot of things could have gone wrong.